A SCHEME to answer patients' queries about the health service in Darlington has been hailed a success.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (Pals) has been operating since November.

The Pals service consists of a manager based at the community health council and a worker in each of the town's doctors' surgeries.

The manager can be contacted on a freephone number by any patient with a question about the health service.

To publicise the service, various community groups such as the Youth Assembly have been contacted and information has been sent to ethnic minority groups.

The group is also hoping to include an information leaflet in the pay slips of all people working for the Darlington Primary Care Trust so staff can pass on their knowledge to patients.

Until the end of January the service had received 49 inquiries. Most of the inquiries have been requests for more information about health services, although there has been a need for some people to be referred to different agencies, such as the benefit agency, to have their problems resolved.